Why I’m Avoiding The DC Rebirth Spoiler

In case you’ve been living under a rock (if that’s the case then send me your address and I’ll move in with you) then you’ll know that someone on Reddit leaked a massive spoiler – maybe THE massive spoiler of DC Universe: Rebirth #1.

**I WILL NOT SPOIL IT HERE**

Partly because it’s an extremely d*ck move, but also because I’ve been working extremely hard to avoid the spoiler at all cost. At first this meant avoiding Reddit, but then Bleeding Cool picked it up, which led to DC confirming it officially which led to all the other news sites running it too, and even Newsarama running an interview with Geoff Johns where he discusses the spoiler. The very same spoiler that he himself asked us all to avoid until we’d read the issue!

I get it, it’s not DC’s fault, nor is it Geoff Johnseses. They’re just trying to get one step ahead at this point, but you know what?! Screw all those people (like me) that want to wait until the issue comes out right? Because ruining a book for the sake of ‘news’ is more important, right?

*Deep breath*

OK, I’m sorry, look. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring you guys into the middle of this, and lord knows plenty of people have a different opinion of this issue than I do, but here’s the thing: there are a lot of people extremely cynical about Rebirth, and rightly so – they’ve been burned before. Part of the marketing of this whole thing is Johns holding his hands up and basically admitting that New 52 got a lot of things wrong. I also know that these exact same cynical people probably don’t care about spoilers for an issue that they were probably going to partly hate-read anyway (or at the very least look for reasons not to like it). I also know *just* enough about the spoiler to know that when we all do talk openly about it a lot of people are going to have a lot to say about it, and probably mostly cynical. I mean, man. If it is what I think it is, then – pardon my French – HOLY MERDE.

But here’s the thing (the actual thing this time):

I WANT TO FIND OUT BY READING THE ISSUE.

I don’t want to find out by reading it on Bleeding Cool, or in a forced, rushed preview sent out by a panicking DC, or on a message board or wherever – I want to read it in the Goddamn book!

Am I alone??

Also: I’m not cynical about Rebirth, I’m hopeful. I want this to be the actual, honest-to-God Rebirth of DC comics. I love these characters. I want them to be the best versions of them they can be and if DC needs to Rebirth to do that then they have my very best wishes to do so.

There are major, major things wrong with DC Comics as a company, if accusations of sexual harassment are in any way true (and I have no reason to think they’re not, although obviously I cannot confirm any of it), so when I talk about this it’s purely based on the actual publications themselves; I know there are a lot of people that are cynical/straight up boycotting DC for IRL reasons that far outweigh the issues here, so I’m not referencing or belittling them.

For me though as a reader, as is the case for a lot of others, there’s been a lot of things wrong with the comics coming out of DC. The New 52 as a whole hasn’t worked for me. Great things have come out of it, like Snyder and Capullo’s Batman, Batgirl of Burnside, Omega Men, Grayson, Midnighter. But those things feel like they’re possible despite the New 52, not because of it.

All of this is to say that I love what it sounds like they’re trying to do with DC Rebirth. I want it to be good, which means I want to give it the best chance possible and not ruin the big moments before I get to them in context.

It’s next to impossible to avoid spoilers in the world we live in. Currently I’m avoiding two spoilers: this, and what happened on the latest Game of Thrones, because I’m watching it tonight (EDIT: Just watched it. Amazing). This means that practically I’m avoiding not only these spoilers, but anyone talking about these spoilers, and any website that may discuss these spoilers – including those that run whole fecking interviews about them (which I still can’t link to because obviously). I’m avoiding Facebook and Twitter because there be friends and family that openly discuss these kinds of things like the word SPOILER means nothing to them, and yes – in this category sits the kind of person that doesn’t directly spoil, but reacts to the spoil (“OMG I can’t believe they killed that person! I won’t spoil who but OMG!” I mean really?)

Wow, this turned out way more ranty than I expected, and for that I apologise. All I wanted to say was this.

People. Can we not ruin things for others?!

Can we not respect the wishes of those of us that occasionally like to find out the old fashioned way and not have it wrecked by an anonymous face online where it will be completely out of context, mocked mercilessly and at the expense of people who are just trying to entertain us?!

That’s it, rant over. And now we return to your regularly scheduled programming.